News
Google Acquires DoubleClick for $3.1B
The boards of both companies have approved the takeover, which is expected to close by the end of the year.
(San Francisco) Seeking to expand its already well-honed ability to sell
targeted Internet advertisements, online search leader Google Inc. said
it has agreed to pay $3.1 billion in cash to acquire ad-management technology
company DoubleClick Inc.
The two companies announced the deal after the markets closed Friday.
The boards of both companies have approved the takeover, which is expected
to close by the end of the year.
New York-based DoubleClick helps its customers place and track online
advertising, including search ads, which Google -- more than its nearest
search competitors Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. -- has turned into an
extremely lucrative business.
DoubleClick had been the target of a fierce bidding war between Microsoft
and Google, and Google's winning bid is nearly three times the amount
DoubleClick fetched when it went private in 2005 for $1.1 billion.
The acquisition is the largest in Google's history, beating out the $1.76
billion deal for online video-sharing site YouTube Inc. late last year.
Though Google commands the lion's share of the online advertising search
market, the addition of DoubleClick's technology and client network will
help further its efforts to branch out beyond simple text ads and into
more multimedia offerings.
Google and DoubleClick said their combination will offer media buyers
and sellers more powerful tools for targeting and analyzing online advertisements
and "serving," or placing them, on an even larger network of
Web sites.
"It has been our vision to make Internet advertising better -- less
intrusive, more effective, and more useful," Sergey Brin, Google's
co-founder and president for technology, said in a statement. "Together
with DoubleClick, Google will make the Internet more efficient for end
users, advertisers, and publishers."
Shares of Mountain View-based Google fell $2.52 to $463.77 in after-hours
trading. DoubleClick has been privately held since 2005.
The sellers are San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman &
Friedman, along with JMI Equity and DoubleClick management.